Portraits of Taichung Artisans features 21 master crafts

(Taiwan Business News) The Taichung City Information Bureau has compiled the artisan portrait column from the ongoing "Reading Greater Taichung" into a book, featuring 21 artisans from different fields, and is publishing a dedicated volume, "Master Crafts - Portraits of Taichung Artisans," to promote and document the precious traditional skills of Taichung's craft artisans.

Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun praised each artisan's dedication to their craft as truly admirable, and said it also proves that Taichung's reputation as a city of culture is well deserved. He believes the book will certainly be a hot seller.

The book "Master Crafts - Portraits of Taichung Artisans," which documents 21 artisans of different traditional crafts, held a new book launch press conference yesterday (the 13th) at the Taiwan Boulevard Municipal Building, and invited nearly 20 artisans to jointly demonstrate many traditional crafts that are now rarely seen, drawing considerable attention.

The 21 traditional crafts are divided into old-time household items, unique artworks, and private musical instruments, such as making quilts in the traditional "fluffing cotton" way, wooden-carved "kueh molds," hoes and knives from the Nantun plow shop, handcrafted violins, exquisitely carved puppets, and handmade incense and sacrificial offerings for rituals honoring the gods. Amid social change, seeing these skills has become quite rare. Lin Tien-wei, who cannot play the violin but taught himself to successfully craft handmade violins that sell in Italy, was highly commended by Deputy Mayor Tsai. Deputy Mayor Tsai even performed on the violin on the spot, receiving enthusiastic applause.

Lin Tien-wei said that although he cannot play the violin, he loves music and has always hoped to combine his work with classical music, so he searched for information bit by bit and also visited the Chimei Museum to see many precious famous violins. He is very happy to have successfully crafted violins that can be sold abroad.

Handmade quilt artisan Ke Chui-ken also picked up a cotton bow on the spot to demonstrate the technique of fluffing cotton, and the cotton fluff that sprang up instantly filled the air. He said that making quilts is actually not difficult, but it is very physically demanding and requires patience. Although only two or three handmade quilts can be produced in a day, slow work produces fine results, and this also makes people more likely to cherish the value of pure handcrafting.